The widespread criticism of Barr’s decision comes as the fate of Flynn’s case now rests with U.S. District
Judge Emmet Sullivan, who must decide whether to grant the Justice Department’s request or move forward with the case in spite of it. As Cristian Farias reported for Vanity Fair, the latter option is actually a strong possibility for the independent-minded Sullivan, who “hasn’t had much patience” for Flynn in the past and once appointed a special outside prosecutor to oversee an investigation into prosecutorial misconduct. In their letter, the former DOJ officials urge Sullivan to take this more aggressive tack, arguing the judge should “closely examine the Department’s stated rationale for dismissing the charges … [and] deny the motion and proceed with sentencing if appropriate.” “If ever there were a case where the public interest counseled the court to take a long, hard look at the government’s explanation and the evidence, it is this one,” they write. (A hasty mistake in the DOJ’s motion to drop the charges, in which U.S. Attorney Timothy Shea accidentally noted the wrong attorney identification number, could also “draw [Sullivan’s] attention” in his review of the case, CNN suggested.)
As the furor around the DOJ’s decision only intensifies, however, the Trump administration has been pushing forward with its “Flynn is totally exonerated” narrative nonetheless. Trumpworld has already started preparing to welcome Flynn back into the fold, suggesting the one-time adviser could be a presence in the administration or 2020 campaign, while desperately trying to cast the Obama administration and their ruthless pursuit of Flynn as the true criminals. The conservative media started calling for Obama-era officials and their judicial allies to be prosecuted in the wake of the Flynn decision—an argument that Trump quickly amplified on Twitter through a weekend firestorm of tweets and retweets about the so-called “Obamagate.” “The biggest political crime in American history, by far!” Trump tweeted Sunday.
The only trouble with Trump’s argument, however, is that despite spending his weekend screaming on Twitter about the Obama administration’s supposed crimes, the president still can’t actually articulate what his predecessor did wrong. At a press conference Monday, Post journalist Philip Rucker asked the president to clarify what, exactly, he considers the “biggest political crime in American history” that former President Barack Obama committed to actually be—and the president appeared to be incapable of actually specifying the supposedly historic crime he’s so worked up about. “Obamagate, it’s been going on for a long time, it’s been going on since before I even got elected. And it’s a disgrace that it happened, and if you look at what’s gone on and if you look at now, all this information that’s been released, and from what I understand, that’s only the beginning,” Trump responded. “Some terrible things happened, and it should never be allowed to happen in our country again. And you’ll be seeing what’s going on in the coming weeks.”
“What is the crime exactly?” Rucker followed up after Trump’s non-answer. “You know what the crime is, the crime is very obvious to everybody,” Trump responded, without giving any more specific details.
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